IHG vs Hilton points: which balance is actually worth topping up?

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The verdict

1. Neither chain publishes what a point is worth, so the only honest comparison is the one you run on your own booking. Price the room in cash, subtract the cash the hotel still bills you on an award stay, divide by the points the night needs and multiply by 1,000. That is your ceiling per 1,000 points — then see today's IHG points price and check the quote against it in our points-value calculator.
2. The structural difference that moves real money is resort fees. Hilton's terms say members on reward stays booked using all Points will not pay resort fees. IHG's terms say resort fees and service charges at individual hotels may apply and are paid directly to the hotel. At a property that charges one, that single clause is worth more than any storefront promotion.
3. IHG's expiry clock is half as long. IHG forfeits Club-level balances after 12 months with no earn or redeem transaction; Hilton uses a 24-month window. Buying points counts as activity in both programs, and in neither do purchased points count toward status.

What "points value" can and cannot mean here

A cents-per-point figure is only a fact if somebody published it. Neither IHG nor Hilton does. IHG's member terms fix the purchase cap and the increment but say nothing about the rate. Hilton's terms are more explicit about the silence: "Purchase limit, minimum Points purchase threshold requirements and cost of Points may change at any time without notice. Total cost of Points will be shown to Member during the purchase process before the purchase is completed." That is a program telling you, in its own rules, that the only price that exists is the one on your screen at the moment you buy.

So we do not print one. What you can compare are the published rules, and those differ enough that the same balance is worth topping up at one chain and not at the other. This piece compares the rules. The number comes from your booking.

The one sum that works at both chains

Your ceiling per 1,000 points = (cash rate you would otherwise pay − cash still due on the award stay) ÷ points the award night requires × 1,000

Three inputs, and only the last one comes from a storefront. The subtraction in the middle is where IHG and Hilton part company, and it is the step most people skip.

IHG's terms: "Reward Nights do not include food and beverages (with the exception of all-inclusive properties), gratuities, or incidentals. Resort fees and/or service charges at individual hotels may apply. These charges are paid directly to the hotel prior to Check-Out." If the property levies a resort fee, that fee survives your award booking and comes off the numerator before you divide.

Hilton's terms: "At Participating Hotels with resort fees, Members on Reward stays booked using all Points or using a promotional free night reward certificate (e.g., issued by credit card partners, etc.) will not pay resort fees." Note the condition carefully — all Points. A Points & Money booking is not an all-Points reward stay, so the waiver does not attach to it.

At a city hotel with no resort fee, the two subtractions come out the same and the comparison collapses back to whatever your two storefront quotes happen to be. At a resort, Hilton's numerator is larger by the whole fee. That is the clearest case in which topping up a Hilton balance beats topping up an IHG one, and it has nothing to do with sale pricing.

What each chain lets you buy

Both rulebooks were read on 22 September 2026, and both programs reserve the right to change these limits.

Two things stand out. Hilton is the more specific of the two about the mechanics of the transaction — it commits to a posting window and tells you when a new account becomes eligible — while IHG is more specific about the shape of what you are buying. And the cap difference is real but rarely binding: 200,000 versus 160,000 points in a calendar year is a ceiling almost nobody reaches by accident.

If you want the single-chain version of this decision rather than the head-to-head, we have written both: whether buying IHG points pays off and whether buying Hilton points pays off.

The expiry clocks are not the same length

This is the one place where the arithmetic stops being about room rates and starts being about not writing off a balance.

IHG: "Club level membership Points will expire if your membership account point balance becomes inactive, meaning there was no 'earn' or 'redeem' transactions, for any period of twelve (12) months or longer." Elite members' points do not expire while Elite status is maintained. There is a trap in the same paragraph: use of the one night per year provided to IHG One Rewards credit card holders does not constitute an earn or redeem activity for expiry purposes. Cardholders who book the anniversary night and assume the balance is safe are wrong.

Hilton: forfeiture follows a 24 consecutive month period without one of four listed actions — stay at a participating hotel, earn points through Hilton or a third party including a co-branded card, purchase points, or donate points. Members "may be permitted to remain in the Program following any period of inactivity and removed after five years at Hilton Honors discretion."

Both programs list buying points as an action that keeps a balance alive — Hilton in the terms themselves, IHG on its own "how to keep your points" page, where Purchase Points sits alongside booking a trip, redeeming a reward night and using Points + Cash. That makes the smallest permitted purchase a rational transaction with no booking in front of you — and it is the only case where we would tell anyone to buy points without pricing a night first. We set out the clocks for all five big chains in our table of hotel points expiration rules.

Award pricing: one chain explains itself, the other does not

IHG states the mechanism: "the number of Points required for a Reward Night may vary according to several factors, including but not limited to brand, hotel, and day of week. There are no blackout dates for Reward Nights; however, room inventory is limited and subject to prior sale." You cannot plan against a chart, but you are at least told what moves the number.

Hilton's terms publish no equivalent pricing mechanism at all. We are not going to fill that gap with an adjective. What Hilton does publish is a long-stay rule: for every Standard Room Reward Stay of five or more nights using all Points, every 5th night is free, listed among the benefits of Silver Elite status and above, with no more than four free nights per stay and the benefit applying up to twenty nights. Silver Elite itself is reachable with 4 Stays, 10 nights, or $2,500 in Eligible Spend in a calendar year — a low enough bar that most people reading this either have it or can reach it.

On a five-night all-Points stay, a free fifth night takes a fifth off the points denominator in your sum. That is a bigger swing than any purchase promotion we have seen either chain run. If your trip is five nights or longer at a Hilton property, run the sum with the fifth night removed before you decide anything — and see today's Hilton points price only after you know how many points the stay actually needs.

Moving points instead of buying them

Before either storefront, check whether someone you travel with has a surplus.

IHG permits transfers between two designated member accounts, but "The Member authorizing the transfer will be charged $5 US per 1,000 Points transferred." That is a real price on a transaction most people assume is free, and it belongs in the same comparison as the storefront quote rather than being treated as a shortcut around it.

Hilton permits one-to-one transfers and Points Pooling in increments of 1,000 points, with each member limited to sending no more than 500,000 points and receiving 2,000,000 points, across six transfers and six pooling transactions per calendar year. Hilton's published terms do not attach a per-thousand fee to the movement itself.

Neither route changes the status answer. IHG sorts its currency into Elite Qualifying and Non-Elite Qualifying and puts purchases, vouchers, deposits and transfers in the second group; Gold Elite needs 40,000 Elite Qualifying Points or 20 Elite Qualifying Nights, and no amount of bought points gets you there. Hilton states plainly that points earned do not count toward Elite Tier Status qualification.

So which balance do you top up?

Top up IHG when you have a specific reward night priced at a property with no resort fee, the division comes in under your ceiling, or a Club balance is inside its 12-month window and the minimum purchase costs less than losing it.

Top up Hilton when the property charges a resort fee that an all-Points stay waives, when the stay is five nights or longer and the fifth-night rule applies, or when you want the transaction mechanics spelled out before you commit.

Top up neither when the trigger is a promotion rather than a booking, or when you are hoping to buy your way into a tier. For the wider version of that judgement across all five chains, start with when buying hotel points is worth it at all, and if you are weighing which chain to concentrate in rather than which points to buy, IHG One Rewards for occasional Holiday Inn Express stays and booking IHG direct versus through an OTA are the more useful reads. The chain with a published award chart is neither of these two — see Marriott versus Hyatt on points per night.

FAQ

Are IHG points or Hilton points worth more?

Neither program publishes a value, so any single figure you see quoted is somebody's estimate rather than a fact. What you can compare is what each award night includes. Hilton waives resort fees on reward stays booked entirely with points; IHG says resort fees and service charges may apply and are paid to the hotel. At a resort property that difference makes a Hilton point do more work on the same booking, and at a city hotel with no resort fee it makes no difference at all.

Do IHG points or Hilton points expire faster?

IHG. Club-level balances are forfeited after twelve months with no earn or redeem transaction, while Hilton uses a twenty-four month window. IHG Elite members are exempt while they hold status. In both programs, buying points counts as qualifying activity and restarts the clock, so the smallest permitted purchase is a legitimate way to protect a balance you are not ready to spend.

Do purchased points count toward IHG or Hilton status?

No, in both programs. IHG classifies its currency as Elite Qualifying or Non-Elite Qualifying and places purchases, vouchers, deposits and transfers in the non-qualifying group. Hilton states that points earned do not count toward Elite Tier Status qualification, which is reached through stays, nights or eligible spend instead.

How many IHG or Hilton points can you buy in a year?

IHG's member terms allow up to 200,000 points per calendar year in minimum increments of 1,000. Hilton's terms allow up to 160,000 Bonus Points per calendar year and note that minimum purchase thresholds may apply and can change without notice. Both programs state that purchases are non-refundable.

Is it cheaper to buy points or transfer them from another member?

It depends on which program and on the quote you are shown. IHG charges the authorising member $5 per 1,000 points transferred, so a transfer is not free and should be priced against the storefront. Hilton's published terms do not attach a per-thousand fee to pooling or one-to-one transfers, but cap each member at sending 500,000 and receiving 2,000,000 points a year across six transfers and six pooling transactions.